“The Phantom of the Opera” actor tests positive for coronavirus

An actor from the musical “The Phantom of the Opera” has tested positive for the coronavirus.

“We will be halting all performances until April 14,” announced Clip Service, the company in charge of the Korean performances that are part of the musical’s world tour.

The confirmed patient has been identified as a foreign actor who left Korea on Feb. 9, after the show’s run in Busan, and came back to the country to continue performing in Seoul on March 14.

His did not have an elevated temperature, but after showing other symptoms of the virus, he visited a special testing center on Tuesday and was confirmed positive that evening. He’s currently in self-quarantine and is waiting to be placed in a hospital.

An estimated 120 members of the musical’s cast and crew went into self-quarantine on Tuesday evening. After the show’s Busan run ended in February, most of the show’s actors and related staff traveled abroad to countries such as Britain, Australia and South Africa and returned to Korea last month. The show’s Seoul run is scheduled to continue through June, and then the show will move on to Daegu until July.

“We have strictly followed safety measures while we were performing, such as regularly disinfecting the stage, making it mandatory that people wear masks and monitoring the temperatures of the entire staff, while restricting face-to-face meetings between the actors and members of the audience and keeping a two-meter [6.6-foot] radius between the stage and the audience,” the company explained.

By Lee Jae-lim